Tuesday, 29 June 2010

As I knew about stroking borders of things already, I decided to do a simple LO and use some of the scrummy stash from Nini @ Suddenly Artistic! I used a mask and a couple of splatters. Then I stroked the edge of the b/g, contracting it a little so it's slightly in from the edge, not on the edge.I tried to use the clear text technique but it didn't show up enough for my liking, so I had to duplicate the text layer, return it to normal blending mode, and then reduce the opacity until I had it light enough for what I wanted but dark enough to show up! It seemed that when I merge the layers for saving as a jpeg, the text went lighter. Most annoying!!There was a good tip on the video about stroking elements to get the shape and then either using with the element, or make the element invisible/delete it and just keep the stroke! Could be useful!TFL!Bernie x

Monday, 28 June 2010

Well, I was inspired by my cutting paper class at Hummie's World to have a go at 8.5"x11" size for a change! Don't think I've ever scrapped this size before, so I decided that I will do all my Sunday Creative pages in this size! Then, I did Lesson 18 of Course 2 at Hummie's this evening, and, when I saw the photo I wanted to use foe the Sunday Creative prompt, I knew that this text technique would work GREAT with that pic!! So this page is also for my lesson 18 LO!! How's that for killing 2 birds with 1 stone?!!!!

I plan to one day print off (i.e. have printed, LOL) all the Sunday Creative pages and have them together in an album. I'm going to use this format of a picture and a quote plus the prompt word, and try and make this album personally inspirational through the photos and quotes (I LOVE quotes!!!).

The paper is from SnickerDoodleDesigns by Karen - Smooth sailing kit, and the hummingbird from Karen's Outside My Window kit. I liked how it looked coming off the photo, and the vibrancy of its colours fitted well with the fantastic quality of this wonderful photo (taken by me, LOL!!!). Photo taken at Hever Castle. All the boats are named after Henry VIII's wives, and you can hire them out cheaply for an hour at a time to row yourself around the lake!

Just a brief note! After using the SnickerDoodlesDesigns kit below, I was so impressed with it, I found Karen's blog and emailed to ask if she would be having a personal CT call anytime soon! Karen kindly replied with a lovely email, checked out my blog and DST gallery, and then asked me to be on her personal CT!!! I am so pleased and excited - I'm still floating on air a little bit, LOL!! I'm really looking forward to seeing Karen's next kit!

In the meantime, you should check out Karen's products at Scrap It Sassy - not only does she make fantastic kits, she does other stuff too, LOL! WordArt, styles, all sorts! Go have a nosey!! Here's the linky!Bernie x

Hummie kindly provided us with some lovely templates for cutting our paper - NOT clipping the paper to them, LOL as I'd usually have done, but cutting that shape from our papers. I couldn't choose, so used 3 of them, LOL!! I used the Outside My Window kit by SnickerDoodleDesigns by Karen again (as I love it so much, LOL!) and blended two papers for the b/g! Hope you can read the quote - 'Happiness is like a butterfly, which, when pursued is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you'. Nathaniel Hawthorne. Loved that when i saw it so went with it for this photo of Evie amusing herself with a little mirror!!

Saturday, 26 June 2010

OMW! This is such a gorgeous kit! GRAB IT NOW! HERE! It's even on sale atm!!! There are LOADS of papers in here - so beautiful - gentle grunge, and the texture on some of the elements such as the netting in the top LO, is amazing! You NEED this kit, LOL!!

Saturday, 19 June 2010

WOW! That's all I can say! Layer styles are actually amazing! I'm a bit fussy about what I like and don't like so can't see me d/ling hundreds or anything, but I found some today that are lovely! So much so that when I changed the scaling and saw how it looked, rather than just use it on text or some small element, I used it on a b/g layer and made it into my b/g paper!!

had so much fun with that and using the gorgeous masks - I feel completely chilled now!

Thursday, 17 June 2010

We had to use a template/sketch designed by our CT Lead, Deborah, and here is my offering! made using Snickerdoodles' Smooth Sailing kit - link to Scrap It Sassy in post below - and I had real fun playing with this!

Well, the prompt for today was another that really didn't say anything to me apart from the obvious - Drizzle. All that came to mind was light rain or lemon drizzle cake, LOL! Having neither of those around, nor the time to actually cook a cake, LOL, and not wanting to repeat what I'd already seen done, in oil being drizzled in a pan, that kind of thing, I decided to look up the definition of drizzle. What jumped out at me was 'misty droplets'. I found this old photo of mine that I've never used and it seemed perfect. The quote ties in nicely with the thought for the day.

Stash used is Dawn Inskip available at Pickleberry Pop (Grace and Grandparents 101 kits) and brush is Dance of the Flowers by Sleepwalkerfish.

I'm not 100% happy with the L/O of this page, but it does the job for now!

Sunday, 13 June 2010

The word for today was 'statue', and the discussion point about finding some inner peace. So this photo (the result of LOTS of playing with duplicated layers, blending modes, special effects eg glass and sepia tones, more layers and blending modes, LOL) was the perfect pic for me, along with the Mother Teresa quote. I very very rarely turn journalling on its side, but for this page, I felt it needed that so as not to draw the eye away from the downwards patterns within the photo!

Day 7 and the word prompt was 'fly'. A lack of time and inspiration meant ending up with a somewhat predictable photo! Still, I had fun playing with it's colour and contrast and opacity, blending it in to the lovely b/g paper (Dawn Inskip available at Pickleberry Pop)! The quote seemed appropriate, esp. as the place the photo was taken (Walmer Castle, Nr. Deal, Kent, UK) has lovely mature gardens that look as if 'the hand of man' has not done too much to them!!

Friday, 11 June 2010

Again, the prompt - fluid - only inspired me to predictible ideas. But then i remembered this ink-in-water technique that a UKScrapper told me about years ago, LOL, and decided to giv that a go! I got a half decent photo so decided to have a play and go with it. The discussion point was about changing the way we usually do things...so instead of going for the over-exposed, blown-out photo, I went the other way! I made it darker, added more contrast, desaturated it, then added just a little sepia for atmosphere! I LOVE the effect I got - to me it looks almost like a painting! So I decided to use this shot, even though it's a bit obvious, LOL!!

Our prompt for today was 'grow'. I wanted to try and avoid flowery pics as there are so many fantastic shots in the Flickr group already, LOL, but then when I found this quote, I went with the photo that most matched my thoughts on that!

Tuesday, 8 June 2010

OK, this is my page for today! The prompt was multilayered. I immediately thought of these crystals that were supposed to keep my flowers alive for weeks, LOL! There are dozens and dozens of them in each vase - they start as tiny crystals and expand to 150x their size when left to soak in water!! I loved the bright vibrancy of these, and my page seems to reflect that! I found a great quote in keeping with today's theme of not letting dreams and goals slip away because of pressure from outside sources - what or whoever they may be! The page seems to have become more arty farty, LOL! not sure why, it's just what came out when I started!

I used Dawn Inskip Strawberry Crush paper and mask, added the pic, and then layered up different brushes, with different blending modes and opacities to add a bit of depth. The brushes I used were (for the border) Urban Decay by gojo123, and in the back of the photo, Dance of the Flowers by sleepwalkerfish. not sure where I got these from - prob. DeviantArt or MyPhotoshop.com!

I've had a lovely time playing with this page, and it only took me about 45 mins to boot!

Monday, 7 June 2010

Day 2 and today's prompt was 'picnic'. This stumped me a bit as I didn't want to set up a posed shot at this time of night, LOL! Then I found a great quote - 'Tea to the English is really a picnic indoors' by Alice Walker. This gave the nudge I needed to get started - I made myself a cuppa, LOL! In my lovely retro Mums! mug!!

All the stash is Dawn Inskip (bit of a theme developing here, LOL!) - either Working 9-5 or That's Life kit!

I'm so inspired by this Boot Camp! Can't wait to see what tomorrow holds!

The prompt word was 'ivory'. I wandered the house looking for appropriately coloured things, but wasn't really satisfied with anything other than these half-dead flowers! They were bought for Antoinette's Confirmation Day on 29th May, and haven't lasted well at all!! For some reason this pic just 'spoke' to me - one of those freaky, artistic, inspiredy things I suppose, where you can't say exactly why something appeals to you, you just know it does! I kept the page simple to show off the pic, but also as this is all it seemed to need! I loved this quote, although what this means in relation to me liking this photo of half-dead flowers, and capturing them like this, I'm not sure, LOL!!!! Thought-provoking though, eh?!Stash used all Dawn Inskip Working 9-5 kit available at Pickleberry Pop. Font: Death Font v.1TFL!Bernie x

The challenge was to create 2 frugal LO - with minimal use of kits! SO! The first I made my own b/g paper using brushes (Colourburned Grungyfilm (sorry have no receord where this came from)& Stitches: Stitch_by_boyingopaw (again not sure where this came from)). The photo is one of my OU photography Course pics!The 2nd page I used Dawn inskip stash (tag/Love/staple) and blended the photo into a gradient b/g made by me, with some texture added! I then added paint daubs!It was actually harder doing these frugal pages than having an enormous kit and trying to choose stash to cluster up, LOL! A good lesson!!TFL!Bernie x

HERE's The link to this GORGEOUS kit - and at such a great price too!!! Thanks for choosing me to do a couple of pages for you Steph, it was a real pleasure! And HERE's a link to Steph's blog - there's a matching freebie!!

Friday, 4 June 2010

I LOVE this technique, and don't do it enough! So I did quite a bit of it on here!! I extracted the main flower and layered it up to look like decoupage and loved the effect - it almost makes the whole photo look like a sketch/painting!

Wednesday, 2 June 2010

As you can see, I don't have many photos of male-oriented things, but the kit was fine for playing and creating other kinds of LOs! The papers are gorgeous, and there are some nice elemts in here! (The green b/g paper on the middle LO is actually more vibrant but I blended it with a grey paper to suit my purposes!). You can grab this great kit HERE!

This is a first for me! The challenge was to see how fast you could scrap a page! I'd just d/led this template, so thought I'd give minimal - VERY minimal! - a try!! I had to sit on my hands to stop myself adding to this, but I do like it!! My sister and her DD.TFL!Bernie x